On Why Bloggers Rule and What Rules the Bloggers (An Abstract)

By: Sonny Zulhuda

The Internet is now a common platform of over one billion users in the world who exchange information, trade communications and transact commerce every now and then. This is the realization of what the website founders initially sought to achieve, i.e. a two-way communications in the cyberspace where writing information should be as simple as reading it.

At the heart of this phenomenon is now the website log – or blog. Blog is not merely a new technology, but it is now a trend. Individuals use blogs to express their feelings. Companies engage themselves in corporate blogging where they capture beneficial information to upgrade their services and achieve corporate objectives, and where marketers capture potential customers while they advertise for their products. And more pressing of all, blog is now an alternative to conventional media industry where individuals easily publish reports of incidents accompanied by their comments and views while getting rid of editorial and spatial barriers of conventional media. People have now often referred to online blogs to get information on ongoing incidents day to day. Given this situation, the luxury of information is now something of the past.

CSR in Cyberspace: A Quest for the Missing Link (An Abstract)

By: Sonny Zulhuda *

The tremendous participation of companies in technological race and in exploiting the cyberspace is often marked with over-excitement and the sense of lawlessness. This is not true if one regards the cyberspace as a space without rule. The fact remains that there are rules in cyberspace just as people have rules in the real physical world.

When it comes to the notion of corporate social responsibility (‘CSR’), the matter may become more confusing: what kind of responsibility companies could have, and to whom they owe such responsibility. Assume that an online business entity does not have a physical presence – not physically registered, therefore not legally incorporated: does it assume a corporate status to subject it to the CSR? As for the incorporated ones, question may arise as to what responsibilities they bear when embarking in the online environment and to whom they are owed.

Mind Your Corporate Data – And Who They May Actually Belong to (An Abstract)

By: Sonny Zulhuda*

Information is the lifeblood of today’s business, and the corporate citizens cannot agree more on this in the present fiercely competitive world, where the source of power has to be redefined, and wealth creation needs to be re-identified. The raw data that in the past just remained in the archives had now become the goose that lays the golden eggs. These golden eggs are in the form of valuable information assets from which the companies exploit and generate their wealth.

Bunch of those raw data, however, do not exclusively belong to the companies who retain them. The customers database, for example, may be a collection of personal, financial and commercial information that originally belong to individuals – either of those internal parties such as employees and shareholders; or of external stakeholders including customers, business partners, and vendors/suppliers.. Can companies regard them as their own property? This may be a contentious issue, depending on how the data was initially obtained: where, from whom, and in what manner or circumstances.

“Yourself 2.0: A Cool or a Fool?”

By: Sonny Zulhuda

The Internet has now taken us to a new dimension of life complete with its new set of lifestyle. The Web 2.0 that famously led its users (Who? Me you and everyone here!) to be the Time Magazine’s 2006 Man of the Year had made us a reader and a writer at the same time; a consumer and a producer at once.

This is the new you. Yourself 2.0 does not only read news or download articles from the Net, but also write blogs or upload creative works online. That is the new you.

On the Misuse of Workplace Technologies

By: Sonny Zulhuda

This week I was speaking about the misuse and abuse of workplace technologies during a session of a two-day seminar/workshop on employment law in Kuala Lumpur. The workshop was attended by mostly legal executives from a range of local companies. The technologies meant here are those Internet-associated tools such as electronic mails, blogs, Internet messaging and online networking sites (e.g. facebook, myspace, hi5, and the likes).

The main concern on which this presentation is grounded was that organizations need to ensure a good return of investment (ROI) over the technologies they use at their workplace. This is because the ROI may be interrupted by range of risks of the use (and misuse/abuse) of the technologies such as wasted productivity, financial loss due to business discontinuity or system defect, and also legal liabilities.

Reinvention of Future Governance through E-Government

By: Sonny Zulhuda*

Introduction

This paper is aimed at assessing the perspectives and experiences of Malaysia on the concept and application of electronic government (e-government), more on policy context. Attempts are made to observe preparatory initiatives taken by the government of Malaysia in three distinctive but interconnected aspects: administrative measures, regulatory frameworks, and public participation. Some update applications of e-government in Malaysia will also be touched at the later part. This paper will be ended by underlining the lessons that can be learned by Indonesia in seeking the best format for e-government application, especially in tabling policies and regulatory framework.

E-Government Defined

Electronic Government (E-Government) is variably defined, but basically refers to “the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.”[1] Nevertheless in this context, this general meaning of the Information Technology (IT) has been so much associated to the use of the Internet. Thus e-government would generally mean the development and utilization of Internet-based solutions in government services and works. Exactly like e-commerce, which is a utilization of Internet-based solutions in business activities.

Cybersquatting and Some Legal Concerns Surrounding Corporate Websites

By Sonny Zulhuda

Introduction

The corporate world today has grabbed the efficiencies of information and communications technology (ICT) in its maximum use. Regardless the size and area of industries, workplaces have been equipped with cutting-edge tools of the computers technology and connected to the Internet. With the adoption of electronic tools such as computers, Internet or Intranet, businesses have been operated more or less electronic way. Meeting notices are no longer served by printed paper, and personal data of employees and customers are no longer kept on bulk of papers previously stored in wooden or metal cabinets. In large extent, the electronic mail (email) and electronic storage have been used to replace traditional way of doing business.

Websites have now become a virtual address of companies. They are used to publish companies’ profile, products, promotions, activities, as well as interactive portals. In Malaysia, for public listed companies alone, there are already 225 public listed companies that have website for their business operations, ranging from merely informational sites to commercially designed and transactional websites (Source: Bursa Malaysia). Besides, more and more government agencies are also posting their websites in the World Wide Web.

Isu-isu Keselamatan dan ‘Privacy’ dalam Penggunaan E-mail di Premis Kerja

Oleh: Sonny Zulhuda

Saat ini e-mail telah menjadi media komunikasi yang makin popular baik untuk konteks komunikasi personal maupun untuk komunikasi rasmi dan urusan berbisnis. Hal ini disebabkan oleh semakin pesatnya kemajuan teknologi komunikasi dan maklumat menerusi Internet yang telahpun dipakai oleh hampir semua bidang industri dan sektor kerajaan di Malaysia. Hal ini pula merupakan konsekuensi dari perkembangan aplikasi e-government bagi bidang awam dan kerajaan, serta e-commerce bagi sektor industri dan swasta.

Managing Online Risks through Contractual Instruments

By: Sonny Zulhuda

By transforming to the workplace environment that uses the Internet and other devices of information and communications technology (ICT) as the enabler in running their businesses, organizations are exposed to potential risks out of the abuse and misuse of the said technology by internal employees and any strangers outside the company alike. Such misuse can take the form of security breaches, theft of company’s informational assets, lost productivity, wasted computer resources, electronic viral infections, business interruption and public embarrassment should a workplace lawsuit be filed.

While lots are done for preventing external hackers from jeopardizing internal network and information system, risks from internal sources are often overlooked by most companies. In fact, the threats exposed by these ‘internal saboteurs’ may be as great as the external intruders, and therefore may be as harmful as the external sources of threats.

Electronic Privacy at Workplace

By: Sonny Zulhuda

Introduction

The massive use of internet and other appliances of information and communications technologies (ICT) at the workplace has intensified productivity through intensive communications between employers and employees as well as between a company and external parties including customers, clients, regulators, etc. Most workplace has now installed Internet and email system by which the employees and employers build their networks and communications both internally and externally. Electronic mail, or e-mail, is a boon to office communications. All employees can be notified instantaneously of important office matters. Phone messages can be logged on the computer and sent via e-mail. A message for someone in a meeting can be e-mailed.

However, what most employees fail to realize with respect to e-mail is that:

• They are probably not the only person who has access to their e-mail, despite the password protection;
• Electronic mail, even if deleted from their personal databases, can be saved in numerous forms by the computer’s own internal backup systems, or by the person to whom the e-mail is being sent.

There is arising concern on employees’ email surveillance that has been widely practiced by employers. This practice, while seen important for maintaining ‘due diligence’ of a company, gives rise to questions of intrusion to privacy.